CAPTION: I imagine Sam Hayes will develop a warmer style now she is on the weekday 6pm bulletin.

Congratulations to Samantha Hayes for winning her new role as Newshub newsreader. And good luck for her transition to the permanent 6pm role. To be honest, I have always thought her delivery somewhat cold and aloof – but as a TV3 insider told me – she is experienced now and capable of changing for the new role. My understanding is that Hayes was always the first choice. She has weathered the celebrity storm in the past. As one pal pointed out, Hayes was hammered by the gossip columnist Rachel Glucina. But that is not going to happen while Glucina works with TV3.

So good luck to the Ginga of the Nation and I’m sure we will be reading more about her life and Loves in the media over the next few weeks.

Hilary was a good newsreader but not a great interviewer

The best thing about the appointment is that the media have stopped lamenting the departure of Hilary Barry. At least until she starts her new job. Of course the media obsession with newsreaders and TV hosts has been around for a long time. With the advent of social media like twitter the raves have extended to journalists public love for their fellow journalists, We reached a new peak in Journo Love with John Campbell’s farewell from TV3. That was followed by his overblown welcome to RNZ. I’m told the ballyhoo over Campbell fronting Checkpoint was RNZ’s fault. not Campbell’s. But why are we trying so hard to tell the rest of the world how much we love one another?

“Lizzie Marvelly is both beautiful and wonderful.”

Beyond the promotion of the Canon Awards winners – which is perfectly valid – in my opinion journalists have got carried away talking about ourselves. Media stories accentuate the positive and buy into the marketing of celebrities. I’ve been seeing a run of magazine items that paint the media in a heroic light. One magazine profile recently described columnist Lizzie Marvelly as “beautiful and wonderful” – which sort of rules out the option for objective view of what she is about.

Radio New Zealand ran a somewhat grandiose article about its collaborative venture with Nicky Hager and TVNZ, covering the Panama Papers.

Does the public buy into our image of ourselves

RNZ Afternoons host Jesse Mulligan ran a lengthy piece in “The Spinoff” about the gifts for journalists and media people when they leave their jobs. Does anybody care about this stuff apart from the media? I think that some of the recent spate of love -letters to media journos have been over-compensation. The future of local journalism business is parlous. But that’s a bit grim to talk about. So we want to convince ourselves and the rest of the world that we are doing God’s work. I’m just not sure that the rest of the public is convinced. Maybe we should convince ourselves before we sell it to the public.